SPX: The Short Version

I think I have mostly recovered from SPX. The 14 hours of sleep last night helped there.

I will probably get some things wrong since it is all blurring together (the lack of sleep helped there) but I will say the amount of fun I had can only be described as “ridiculous.”

Being a volunteer was an incredible experience and I recommend it to everyone. I met some great people (hi Nate! hi Ben!) and our fearless volunteer coordinator Michael Thomas took excellent care of us. I enjoyed volunteering so much that I continued doing it even when my shifts were over.

Most of Friday was spent setting up and then running around doing this and that. I bought a few things on Friday – most notably, the first chapter of Matt Silady’sThe Homeless Channel (and I kick myself that I didn’t just buy the whole thing because it’s that good). I watched Nick Abadzis’ presentation on Laika, which was expanded from his one at the Air & Space Museum (I also enjoyed chatting with Abadzis again). I helped close up the registration table, grabbed dinner (I skipped the Gilbert Hernandez Q&A) and headed to the reception.

Christopher “Radical” Warren struck up a conversation with me and promoted Dead Man’s Hand and how they decided on the Old West theme (because pirates and zombies are over!). We had a great conversation and we agreed on autobiographical comics (mostly, that they’re dull) and I’m glad I got to meet him.

Saturday, I had the early shift (9 to 12) but I got there around 8:30 (I left early because you can never tell if the Metro is going to be early or late). We untangled badges and made more (badly) until we eventually realized how to keep them from falling apart. My volunteer shift went by quickly and then I went onto the floor to spend much too much money.

I won’t list everything here (I’ll discuss it more in detail later) but I was most impressed by Rachel Nabors (of course, I liked her story in the Friends of Lulu anthology, but I think my Pokemon story is for another time). She was super cute and friendly. I also finally tracked down Julia Wertz to sign my copy of The Fart Party. Here and there, I stopped by the volunteer table and pointed people to Vegetable Garden which everyone kept asking about (really, it’s apparently legendary. I didn’t eat there, though).

As I waited for my boyfriend and friend to get there, I sat on the floor and read comics. I wasn’t the only one, and you do get fewer weird looks there when you’re giggling to yourself than you do when you’re on the Metro.

I left SPX at about 3:30 on Saturday, feeling exhaustion creeping in. I was really sad to go – if I hadn’t been so tired, I would’ve stayed through the end. But what an amazing weekend and I want to thank everyone involved for making it so awesome. I think SPX is definitely the coolest comic book-related event, but quite possibly just one of the coolest events, period. If I’m not in the area next year, I’m going to come back for it.

I’ll write about the massive amounts of comics purchased in more detail as I read them.